additional rime is introduced are the fourth, the ninth, the tenth, the
eleventh and the twelfth.

As regards the transition from octave to sestet the following sonnets
observe the prescribed law, namely, the second, third, sixth, seventh,
and ninth. The seven remaining sonnets all show some irregularity in
this respect. The first sonnet (_Fair Star_) with its abrupt
_enjambement_ at the close of the octave, and the thought pause in the
body of the first line of the sestet, is a form much employed by Mrs.
Browning, but rigorously avoided by Dante Gabriel Rossetti with his more
scrupulous ideal of sonnet construction. This imperfect transition is
seen again in the fourth, fifth, eighth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth
sonnets. Its boldness certainly amounts to a technical fault in the two
sonnets on _King's College Chapel_.

In the sestet we naturally expect and find much variety in the
disposition of the rimes. The conclusion of the last sonnet by a couplet
is most unusual in Wordsworth.



"IT IS NOT TO BE THOUGHT OF"

This sonnet was composed in September, 1802, first published in the
Morning Post in 1803, and subsequently in 1807.



WRITTEN IN LONDON, SEPTEMBER, 1802: